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2008 Fall/Winter Movie Preview
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Movie Reviews THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND | THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND |
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| Written by Jed Medina | ||
| Sunday, 10 June 2007 | ||
Film review by Jamie Garwood The story of a Scottish doctor, Nicholas Garrigan, who becomes Idi Amin's (the ruthless Ugandan dictator) personal physician is largely an amalgamation of the lives of several people but is based on events that occurred during the dictator's political coup and his ultimate downfall in the eyes of the international peacekeepers. Amin is a big subject but it is about time he was conceptualised onto the screen. It also needs a big presence and Forest Whitaker, who is usually cast as a loveable teddy bear, brings his huge frame to the role and successfully pairs the charm of the man and his love for his country with the irrational, paranoid nature of a man who at times does not know what he's doing. For this portrayal, Whitaker won both the Golden Globe and the Oscar awards for Best Actor, proving that such a tricky role, when handled properly by a versatile actor, can be exceptional. But for me the big surprise was James McAvoy as Garrigan. He starts off full of life but the more he gets drawn into Amin's circle, the more he realises he is drowning. At times he resembles Warren Beatty in The Parallex View, a character way in over his head as a result of his own doing. Garrigan's character arc is the centre of the film and while watching, I wondered why McAvoy was not up for lead actor or even supporting actor awards. His bright blue eyes shine in the bright light like O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, and, like Lawrence, his youthfulness and naivety enhances his plight. Criticisms would be the lessening of Gillian Anderson's role. She appears all too briefly in an underwritten role and is seemingly forgotten about once the action moves to the capital. Kevin MacDonald's debut feature film shows that the award-winning documentary maker has enough nuance to direct a big budget film, much like his contemporary Paul Greengrass. He is a keen observer of people and this awareness makes them both good directors of actors: their fluency of movement also makes for good camerawork. A good shot is when Nicholas has picked a model of a new building for Amin to ponder over. The camera glides down the outside of the model and then Whitaker appears from round the corner, his big face encompassing the whole of the screen and appearing bigger than the building, making this monster akin to Godzilla. One aspect of the film process that particularly impressed me was the use of sound in the creating of tension in key scenes - the first meeting between Amin and Nicholas with pains of the cow racketing up as Nicholas attempts to diagnose the dictator, which helped to externalise Nicholas' thoughts. Just another aspect of this deft piece of film-making, which is both educational and entertaining. [ visit official website ]
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James Mcavoy was overlooked!
How disappointing that James McAvoy was overlooked at the Oscars! His performance is one of the best, and among the young actors we have today, he is definitely one of the best- probably one of the top 3 most important young actors- Joe Levitt and Ryan Gosling, being the other two.
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June 11, 2007
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